Inside My Mother

(Paperback)

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'...an outstanding achievement that will, with its skill and elegance, deeply enrich Australian poetry and whoever reads it.' Judges' citation, 2013 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Poetry Ali Cobby Eckermann, a Yankunytjatjara/Kokatha poet, is at the forefront of Australian Indigenous poetry. Inside My Mother is both a political and personal collection, angry and tender, propelled by the need to remember yet brimming with energy and vitality - qualities that distinguished her previous, prize-winning verse novel, Ruby Moonlight. Tributes to country, to her elders, and to the animals and spirits that inhabit the landscape, coupled with the rhythms of mourning and celebration that pulse through the poems, make this a moving and personal collection. Grief is deeply felt and vividly portrayed in poems such as 'Inside My Mother' and 'Lament'. There is defiance and protest in 'Clapsticks' and 'I Tell You True'. In the final section there is a marked generational shift as the elders begin to pass away and the poet as grandmother comes to accept her rightful place as matriarch.

Reviews

'Like her sculptures, Ali Cobby Eckerman's poems use simple elements to weave something complex, delicate and strong.' Sydney Morning Herald

'Her images are clear and succinct, but also dense, as a seed or bulb is dense with its future as a tree or flower.' The Australian

'Through song and story, Ali Cobby Eckermann confronts the violent history of Australia's Stolen Generations and gives language to unspoken lineages of trauma and loss.' Windham-Campbell Prize